The other day I decided to knock up a playlist of my life. The idea was to have one song for every year that I have been alive. I arbitrarily decided to not have more than one track for an artist and I was a bit flexible about the dates. Sometimes there is a song against the year it was released as a single, or maybe the year after if that is when it charted, or the year before if that was when it appeared on an album.They are all songs I listened to a lot and am happy to listen to again on this playlist. Obviously the songs from the early sixties are not something I was listening to at the time, but got into later. Much later in some cases. But generally they are tunes I was obsessed with when they were released. Not to censor my youthful tastes, but in 1969 I was probably listening to Jake the Peg by Rolf Harris and in 1971 I was probably listening to Ernie (the Fastest Milkman in the West) by Benny Hill but I just wouldn’t welcome them popping up on a playlist now.

I am thinking about writing a post about each of them, in order, just to try and re-engage with writing here.

What surprised me most was how many of my favourite artists and songs are not on the list. No Elton John, Yes, Gang of Four, Spizzenergi, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Talking Heads, Blondie, Van Morrison, Depeche Mode, This Lizzy, Manic Street Preachers…

Anyway, here is the playlist. Fifty-seven songs that cover most of the bases.